The Dodgers have a good thing going right now – a better thing than any team in Major League Baseball, at least on paper.

“I don’t want to be the one to screw up the momentum,” a smiling Chris Capuano said Thursday.

Easy for him to say. Capuano exited his second start of the season with one out in the sixth inning, the Dodgers nursing a 3-2 lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates, then watched his bullpen preserve the one-run victory before an announced crowd of 28,328 at Dodger Stadium.

Capuano and the Dodgers could breathe easy after a three-game series sweep, albeit one by the slimmest of margins against a team that has not qualified for the postseason since 1992. For some, that might be enough to temper hopes after the Dodgers’ first 6-1 start since their championship season of 1981. The win also kept the Dodgers in possession of the majors’ best record in the infant season.

The San Diego Padres – an injury-bitten squad that lost three of four at home to the Dodgers to start the season – are coming to town for the weekend, an ideal opponent for a team looking to extend its hot streak.

Yet the Dodgers are loath to attach any asterisks, disclaimers or caveats to their momentum.

“You can put things on paper all you want,” manager Don Mattingly said. “You have to go out and play. It doesn’t matter who (the wins) are coming against.”

Said slugger Matt Kemp after his fifth multi-hit game of the season: “We know what we’re capable of doing.”

For a few Dodgers, though, the numbers are getting ridiculous.

Javy Guerra worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his third save in as many days – his MLB-leading fifth in as many outings this season. Kemp (2 for 4) is batting .414 and ranks second in the league in runs scored. Andre Ethier is tied for the major-league lead in RBIs with 10.

For a few more Dodgers, their accomplishments Thursday were overdue.

In spite of a chilly, 57-degree game time temperature, Capuano got off to a hot start en route to his first win this season. He retired five of the first six batters he faced via strikeout, using nothing more than a 91-mph fastball in addition to his typically heavy dose of sinkers, sliders and changeups.

Slumping infielders Juan Uribe and James Loney had RBI singles in the first inning, along with a sacrifice fly by Juan Rivera that staked Capuano to a 3-0 lead.

Yet as he did in his Dodgers debut last Saturday in San Diego, the left-hander hit a snag in the fifth inning. Michael McKenry, a career .214 hitter making his sixth plate appearance of the season, launched 2-1 pitch over the center-field fence for the Pirates’ first run.

Capuano continued to struggle into the sixth, when two straight Pittsburgh singles followed by a sacrifice fly trimmed the Dodgers’ lead to 3-2.

“Sometimes you can try almost a little too hard,” said Capauno, who finished with no walks and seven strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. “I think that was definitely the case in San Diego. I guided a few pitches into the zone.”

Next time, he added, “hopefully I’ll relax a little bit and pitch later into the ballgame.”

By now, Capuano should at least be trusting his bullpen, which logged 8 2/3 scoreless innings during the series.

Mike MacDougal recorded one out in relief of Capuano, but left the bases loaded for left-hander Scott Elbert. Facing pinch-hitter Matt Hague, Elbert left a fastball over the plate and could only sweat for a moment as Hague lined a sharply-hit ball to Kemp in center field.

Josh Lindblom and Matt Guerrier each threw a scoreless inning of relief before giving way to Guerra, who needed just 11 pitches to record the save.

“It wasn’t like he went out and had a 24- or 25-pitch inning and then another 24-, 25-pitch inning,” Mattingly said. “Nothing is ever a breeze but he had nine-pitch and 11-pitch innings (the last two days) and they’ve been pretty simple.”

Nothing?

So far the Dodgers, or at least their opponents, are making it look easy.

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